A wide variety of data management (DM) applications have been developed to supplement the basic file storage and retrieval functions offered by most operating system (OS) kernels. Typical DM applications include hierarchical storage management (also known as data migration), unattended data backup and recovery, on-line encryption and compression, and directory browsers. These applications, which extend the basic OS kernel functions, are characterized by the need for monitoring and controlling the use of files in ways that ordinary user applications do not require.
In response to this need, the Data Management Interfaces Group (DMIG) was formed by a consortium of UNIX® software vendors to develop a standard Data Management Application Programming Interface (DMAPI). DMAPI provides a consistent, platform-independent interface for DM applications, allowing DM applications to be developed in much the same way as ordinary user applications. By defining a set of standard interface functions to be offered by different OS vendors, DMAPI gives DM software developers the tools they need for monitoring and controlling file use, without requiring them to modify the OS kernel. DMAPI is described in detail in a specification document published by the Open Group (www.opengroup.org), entitled “Systems Management: Data Storage Management (XDSM) API” (Open Group Technical Standard, 1997), which is incorporated herein by reference. This document is available at www.opengroup.org.
As noted in the XDSM specification, one of the basic foundations of DMAPI is “events.” In the event paradigm, the OS informs a DM application running in user space whenever a particular, specified event occurs, such as a user application request to read a certain area of a file. The event may be defined (using DMAPI) as “synchronous,” in which case the OS will notify the DM application of the event and will wait for its response before proceeding, or as “asynchronous,” in which case OS processing continues after notifying the DM application of the event. The area of a file with respect to which certain events are defined is known as a “managed region.”
Another fundamental concept in DMAPI is a “token,” which is a reference to a state that is associated with a synchronous event message. The state typically includes lists of files affected by the event and DM access rights in force for those files. The token may be passed from thread to thread of the DM application and provides a convenient means for referencing the state. Access rights may either be shared with other processes (in which case they are read-only rights), or they may be exclusive (read-write) rights.
Communications between DM applications and the OS are session-based. The DM application creates the session by an appropriate DMAPI function call (dm_create_session( )). The application then registers event dispositions for the session, indicating which event types in a specified file system should be delivered to the session. Multiple sessions may exist simultaneously, and events in a given file system may be delivered to any of these sessions.
The DMAPI standard, having grown out of the needs of UNIX system vendors, is based on the notion of a single system environment, using a single computing node. DMAPI implementations have also been developed for distributed file systems, which allow a user on a client computer connected to a network to access and modify data stored in files on a file server. When a user accesses data on the file server, a copy of the data is stored, or cached, on the client computer, and the user can then read and modify the copy. When the user is finished, the modified data are written back to the file server. Examples of distributed file systems include Sun Microsystems' Network File System (NFS™), Novell Netware™, Microsoft's Distributed File System, and IBM/Transarc's DFS™. Transarc Corporation (Pittsburgh, Pa.) has developed a DMAPI implementation for its DFS called DMEpi. All of these distributed file systems, however, are still essentially single-node systems, in which a particular server controls any given file. The DMAPI and data management applications for such distributed file systems are essentially server functions and are not distributed among the client nodes.
IBM's General Parallel File System (GPFS) is a UNIX-style file system designed for IBM RS/6000 multiprocessor computing platforms, such as the SP™ and HACMP™ systems. GPFS, which runs in the AIX® operating system, allows applications on multiple nodes to share file data, without mediation of a file server as in distributed file systems. GPFS is described, for example, in a publication entitled “General Parallel File System for AIX: Concepts, Planning and Installation,” which is available at www.rs6000.ibm.com/resource/aix_resource/sp_books/gpfs. GPFS supports very large file systems and stripes data across multiple disks for higher performance. GPFS is based on a shared disk model that provides low-overhead access to disks not directly attached to the application nodes and uses a distributed locking protocol to provide full data coherence for access from any node. These capabilities are available while allowing high-speed access to the same data from all nodes of the system. GPFS has failure recovery capabilities, allowing applications to continue running even when node or network component failures occur.
A series of patents to Schmuck et al. describe aspects of a shared parallel disk file system that are implemented in GPFS. These patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,893,086; 5,940,838; 5,963,963; 5,987,477; 5,999,976; 6,021,508; 6,023,706; and 6,032,216, all of whose disclosures are incorporated herein by reference.